The socialisation of an infants emotions: The role of maternal language

The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of maternal lang uage on infant emotional development during the first year. Forty-one mothe r-infant dyads participated in four episodes of face to face interaction wh en infants were 1, 2, 6, and 9 months of age. Analyses of mothers' language indicated that a large proportion of their utterances pertained to infant emotional expressions or states. The referents of maternal language were re lated to infant behavior at each age level. However, only a few significant correlations were found between mothers' language at 1 and 2 months and in fant emotional expressions at 6 and 9 months.